Ultimate Comfort Food: California Avocado Meets Vermont Cheddar

Sometimes we just need a taste of home. For me, it’s when I’m under the weather. As a child, I could stay home from school when I didn’t feel good and watch daytime television. Shows like Father Knows Best, The Donna Reed Show and The Andy Griffith show kept me company. I would make myself a gooey grilled cheese sandwich and hunker down to watch Art Linkletter or Perry Mason. Even when I was sick, life was good.

Nowadays it takes a lot to make me stop, cancel work and activities, see a doctor and lie down to get well. A small consolation is that I can watch Food Network or Cooking Channel all day. When I’m not dozing I can play Scrabble on the computer. If I’m hungry, I treat myself to a childhood favorite: Grilled Cheese Sandwich with Cabot Cheddar. I bring several 3 lb. boxes of the Seriously Sharp Cheddar home with me every time I travel to Vermont…and there’s an open box in our refrigerator at all times.

Cabot Seriously Sharp Cheddar

Cabot cheddar cheese brings back memories. I remember eating those delicious grilled white cheddar cheese sandwiches at the “Ice Cream Place” in my hometown…a cafe that was known for serving real ice cream from a local dairy. My dad loved to have the white cheddar from Cabot with his apple pie, especially if the cheese was flavored with sage. My husband and I visited Cabot creamery on our trip home to Vermont to meet my family…and we returned to California with an old fashioned wheel of Cabot cheddar (in our suitcase) to share with the California relatives when we announced our engagement.

Our "Cheese-Cutting" Engagement Party Sept. 1981

As you probably know by now, my husband is an avocado farmer. We live in the middle of thousands of avocado trees. There are always plenty of avocados ripening on the kitchen counter. Now when I make my beloved sandwich with the special Vermont cheddar cheese from Cabot Creamery, I have to include avocado too. No tomato. Nothing but cheese and avocado from our own trees. Ummmmm.

Cut the avocado in half, remove the pit, peel then slice the fruit

It’s a good idea to get the cheese slices and the avocado ready while the butter melts in the pan.

grill the bread in some butter while the cheese melts

I like to let the bread get browned and crunchy in the butter while the cheese begins to melt.

Cabot Seriously Sharpt Chedder begins to get gooey

When the cheese begins to get gooey, I put the sandwich together and flip it over to let the cheese melt all the way through.

Pull the sandwich apart when the cheese is melted

Since I don’t want the avocado to actually cook or get warm, I just pull the sandwich apart when the cheese is all gooey and add the avocado slices with a little pepper. No need for salt, as the cheese and the bread have enough salt already.

Crunchy Buttered Toast with Gooey Cheese and Delicate Avocado

Just seeing that sandwich makes me feel better! Trouble is, the delicious smell of the browned butter and the melting cheese brings the rest of the family into the kitchen to see what’s up. Don’t ever make just one sandwich in our household!